What Have You Built a Reputation For?
The following is an excerpt from a newsletter published June 20th, 2024
What have you built a reputation for?
And….
Do you want that reputation?
This is worth checking in on!
Sometimes we build a reputation for an aspect of our work or the way we approach it that no longer holds value to us. (Maybe it never did.)
Maintaining or defending this reputation can get in the way of us becoming more of ourselves.
This is often around some expression of perfectionism or morality. Anything that signals we are “GOOD”. Beyond reproach. Defensible. Safe.
Or!
Perhaps we've become great at something and now others expect us to be great at everything. We might expect ourselves to be great at everything.
An interesting thing about developing expertise in one area is it can make it hard to let yourself be a beginner in another. Our culture expects linearity (up and to the right!) and our brains are wired for globalized thinking (everything must be good or everything is bad).
This makes “beginning again” in public…. hard 🫠.
So again, it's worth asking:
What are you currently known for? What is it like to live up to that reputation?
Maybe being reliable, committed, or innovative creatively still matters to you… but the WAY you express that needs to be different.
You are reliable because you always do what you say you will, not because you always do it within two hours.
You are committed because you quit the right things, not because you never quit.
You are an artist worthy of attention and admiration because you keep making art, not because all that art is beautiful.
See what I mean?
You get to decide how excellence is expressed through you.
You get to set the tone for yourself. You get to choose the yardstick you're measuring yourself against.
How you choose to view yourself will shape how others are able to see you.
If the container of your reputation has gotten too small, or limiting in an undesirable way, ‘repot’ yourself into a larger container.
As always, would love to hear what this sparks for you.
Here's to your growth,
— Kate
P.S. Want to turn this into an exercise?
Write out any praise, compliments, reflections, or affirmations you're frequently given (could be for yourself or your business)
Look at this list. How does it feel in your body? Do these things feel true for you? (People can project all sorts of stuff on you)
Check in for directional alignment. Is this what you want to be known for or associated with? Does it track to your values? If you keep going like this… what kind of person will you be in X years? What will your business, your relationships look like?
Make adjustments. Do you need to make any changes here? Do you, even for your own sake, need to clarify how you define any of these things? Any qualities you want to lean into, lean out of?
Permission to change, folks!
P.P.S. Did you recognize the artist of this week's header photo?!
Georgia O'Keeffe! Red Hills and Bones, 1941
Famous artists are fascinating from a reputation standpoint. For many O'Keeffe = Flowers = Vulvas. People sexualized her art, even though she was consistently clear in interviews that any association between flowers and vulvas is reflective of the viewers psyche, not hers. (LOL.)
A whole can of worms worth opening here, but I'll say that I admired her conviction in the face of… * gestures at being a women artist in the 20th century *.
Also, her bones paintings are my favourite. I was grateful to see a few up close at the Georgia O'Keeffe and Henry Moore: Giants of Modern Art exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Modern Art last month.
